The problem: I played football and ran track. The nearest away games were in Chico, 110 miles down a winding mountain road. Our teams traveled in yellow school buses. The track trips weren't so bad, because the boys and girls teams usually traveled together, and I had a crush on every single member of the girls' team, if I recall correctly. But I had no crushes on any football teammates, and those trips were long and miserable (especially the four-hour ride to Yreka).

The solution: I saved my money and, on a trip to the big city (Reno, Nev.) bought a plastic, space-age-looking Panasonic portable cassette player. Back home, I took it apart, drilled a couple of holes through the housing and installed both an on/off toggle switch for the speaker and a headphone jack. Then I recorded some tapes by placing the Panasonic between my stereo speakers and playing my favorite records. My tapes from that era included the sounds of doors closing and the telephone ringing.

The happy ending: Next thing you know, I'm on the bus, with the thick, coiled cord of my big Radio Shack headphones plugged into the Panasonic, privately rocking out to T. Rex, Bo Diddley, the Blue Oyster Cult and yes, Yes.

When Walkman players hit the stories in 1979, I realized I should have filed for a patent (I should have miniaturized my gear and made it stereo, too, but, hey.) I could have called it the Sitman. -- Dan Montgomery n

Twenty-five years ago, America tuned out. A midnight-blue-and-silver brick with astonishing sound debuted in July 1979. Called the Soundabout, Sony's TPS-L2 cassette player was an investment at $199.95.

A Civil War-period coat worn by a nurse — a woman from a prominent Mathews County family who some believe was the only woman to be commissioned as a captain in the Confederate Army — is among the nominees for Virginia's Top 10 Endangered Artifacts program.

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK — The Navy on Saturday commissioned the USS John Warner, adding a 12th Virginia-class submarine to the fleet and celebrating the legacy of its namesake, the retired senator who was hailed as a statesman.